The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-08-12

| Okuus
'What camps that!"
'.Kenyon and matsa"
81 lowed it was" down
the sides of the gulch on his sure-iooted
mulc-"You Kenyonf News for you
A kid mp to your ranch. ten days old.
All hands doing well yesterday morn
ing"
The rest reused themselves. slecpily.
He had got of the trail, and seeing our
smoke had struck for it We knew
and he knew that the chances were
that it saved his life; but he swallowed
his coffee and smoked his pipe and
turned In with the rest as ii getting
lost in . norther was one of the
things that happened. of course. to
every man.
Then sat and thought . while, and
finally / reused out Madison.
"You take my turn" said to him;
I'm going home"
'.Not a brute that will travel"
you'll pass in your checks before
morning."
mo, the wind is at my back; no
fords; I'll keep going;" and went.
Went; half running, with the wind
driving me on till was ready to drop.
Once I fell and lay there with the wind
dragging and tearing at me until be-
gan to grow sleepy. and then l had got
to get up and go ahead again.
Perhaps you never tried crossing q
prairie at night without trail to fol-
low, It's curious thing. one can't
account for; one that makes you feel as
if your body and all your senses were
of no more account than a spent car
fridge. 1t happened to me that night,
space and time seemed to get all mixed
up together all at once racing along; it
seemed to me that / had been keeping
up that sort of thing for hours. 1 felt
50 adrift somehow-so horribly lost
as If l had slipped out of myself and
was out in space without a landmark
to measure any thing by. l expect
you'll have to try it yourself to know
what mean. l had no watch;
there was no way of knowing how
much time had gone. OF all the devils
that can enter into man uncertainty
is the worst Every sort Of fancy
came into my head. Perhaps / did not
know tho route as we'll ~ l had
thought. Perhaps l had even passed
the cabins and was going away from
them with every step 1 ought to have
reached them in three hours at the ut
most. 1t seemed to me that had been
hurting along for twice three hours.
Once tried madly to fight back into
the wind. 1t was hopeless-worse than
useless should drop with exhaustion
in a few minutes, and mast keep 60
ing.
And then l found burned grass under
my feet. There had been fire over
the prairie. The ground was not cold
yet A new dread got hold of me.
Who knew where it had gone or what
had stood in its track? Iran clong
screaming something-praying or
swearing-quite mad, l think. for n
little. till fell again and the jar
brought me to my senses.
Ihad gone over the edge of an old
buffalo run scooped dry by the rush
of summer rains. lay still for little
while. l must have gone to sleep or
perhaps 1 tainted away. Anyway.
when 1 came to myself again the world
was as still as the grave.
The wind had gone down. as it will
sometimes, suddenly and entirely. The
silence was horrible. l got on my feet,
stiff and benumbed. In all that gray,
still, CHASTITY space there was nothing
to tell east from west, or north from
south. Twas lost on the big range.
twas stiH enough but the cold was
dangerous. could not stop. must
move somewhere. must make my
self purpose purpose to keep my
self alive at least-till daylight: came.
l began walking; it did not matter in
what direction. If only my strength
held out till morning-strength to
keep of that horrible drowsincss.
know l stumbled heavily along. Twas
thinking about Molly and her baby; it
all seemed like dull dream.
And then bells began to ring. deep
and soft and far of. stopped in my
tracks to listen. 1t was the sound of
bells, certain, full and sweet; and l
turned and went blindly on, following
the sound as hound might follow a
scent.
All at once saw light 1t wasn't
a star; there were no stars. And no
body lived on the big range, unless
some camper was travelling about. and
campers don't travel in the teeth of a
norther. And this light swung and
wavercd. went out entirely for sec
ond or two, and then burned up again. |
And near or far could not tell. only it
was light and it moved. and followed
it. And could hear the bells all the |
time.
Then, all at once, another one of |
Molly's Bible verses flashed into my
head; some thing about ''star in the |
East that went before them till it came |
and stood over the place where the |
young child lay"
Well. l wasn't a wise man, or l
shouldn't have got in such fix. l
don't think I'm an irreverent kind of q |
fellow, either; man couldn't live
with Molly many years and be that
Only was looking for young child.
too, and babics-little oues-always did
seem to me near enough to Heaven to |
make that story about the star reason
able enough. Any way. there it was.